A mobile communication device (e.g., a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a global positioning system (GPS) navigation device, etc) may display a map showing the location of a user of the mobile communication device in order to aid the user with navigation (e.g., when walking or driving around an unknown location). Many navigation applications enable the mobile communication device user to input information, such as a starting point, a destination point, how a path between the starting and destination points should be calculated (e.g., shortest distance, shortest time, most use of highways, etc.), etc. The navigation applications utilize this information to calculate a path for the mobile communication device user.
The navigation applications also enable the mobile communication device user to perform a local search for points of interest (e.g., stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc.). The local search is performed in a radial pattern with a current location of the mobile communication device as the center point. The search results provided based on the local search may be ahead of, to the left of, to the right of, or behind the mobile communication device's current location. However, such navigation applications do not permit the mobile communication device to limit the local search results to points of interest in the direction of travel (e.g., the forward direction) of the mobile communication device.